Design and simulation of small size MEMS bimaterial cantilever solar cell using piezoelectric layer

In this paper a novel solar cell based on MEMS technology has been proposed. The process of converting solar energy to electrical energy has been done using MEMS solar cell which is able to convert heat to voltage with temperature variation and direct piezoelectric effect. First, a bimaterial cantilever (with Al and SiO 2 materials) is deflected by absorbing solar energy and thus solar energy is converted to mechanical energy. Then the produced mechanical vibration is converted to electrical energy using a piezoelectric layer of aluminum nitride. Compared with conventional solar cells, this structure is able to absorb whole solar radiation spectrum, the produced electrical voltage is AC with 0.75 V amplitude, therefore no need inverters and the size of our MEMS solar cell (400 µm 2 ) is smaller than the previous works.